Michelangelo: Saint or Sinner (2023)

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The following programme contains

flashing images.

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

MAN: 'Was Michelangelo

a saint or a sinner?

He's a saint of art.

He's certainly a patron saint of art

and probably one of the most

famous artists in the world.

So in that sense,

he's saintly in that

we still respect him and observe him

and go to his relics

and the remains that he's given us.

But he thought of himself

as a sinner.'

WOMAN: 'I think in this case,

we have to separate

the artist from the man

and when we think of an artist,

the public persona

is always this genius,

this guy who had the hands of God

to create these divine-like works.

Then it's hard to think of him

in any other way than divine.

But maybe this is the perfect

moment in time, in history,

to think about him as a human being,

as a complicated human being.'

(WOMAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

(MAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

(SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

(PIANO MUSIC FADES OUT)

I love Michelangelo

on a very deep level.

He's the ultimate artist for me.

And I- I like to think of him

more like a God than a mere mortal.

So, he's a complex man,

and maybe it's time for me

to stop thinking about him as a God

and think about him as a man.

(WIND SWIRLS)

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

KATE:

'I never tire of being in Rome.'

'I've been coming here

for 20 years for my career.'

'It's almost as if I left

a little piece of myself here,

and then I reconnect with it again

every time.

It's a place

that just gives me so much energy.

When I'm walking these cobblestones,

I'm immediately connected

to Renaissance Masters.

I'm looking

at these ancient monuments

and I'm thinking of an

entirely different world.

But a world that still

informs my existence today.'

(CHURCH BELLS RING)

'It's such a layered city,

and I suppose I'm addicted to it.'

'I'm a pilgrim. I keep returning.

And there's one artist

more than anyone else

that I'm in search for...

..that I'm always keeping

an eye out for...

and it's Michelangelo.'

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

This is the tomb of Pope Julius II

by Michelangelo.

It was supposed to be

one of the most magnificent,

splendid, ground-breaking

artworks in history.

And instead,

it's completely mired in controversy.

It took 40 years to deliver.

It is far diminished.

It is a modest artwork

instead of a magnificent artwork.

(PENSIVE MUSIC CONTINUES)

And ultimately,

it's something that really threatens

Michelangelo's reputation.

It involves lots of scheming,

lots of letters,

lots of accusations, several popes,

Michelangelo's rivals,

Raphael and Bramante.

Perhaps the biggest controversy

about Michelangelo, this tomb.

The mausoleum

was to be Michelangelo's

commission of a lifetime

that was meant

to secure his legacy forever,

secure it beyond our wildest

dreams that we know today.

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

'I think the failed tomb

of Pope Julius II

can give us a different insight

into Michelangelo's personal life.

Without this tomb,

and the controversy

that surrounded it at the time,

Michelangelo probably

would not have created

some of his most magnificent work.

So one could argue

that out of his darkest moments

rose some of his

brightest achievements.'

(STIRRING MUSIC)

'As a sculptor,

he had imagined something ambitious,

a marble monument like no other.

This tomb for Pope Julius II,

known as the warrior pope,

was meant to become

the eighth wonder of the world.'

'We are unaware of the details

as we have no drawings.

But we do know that he

wanted it to be magnificent.

A celebration of Christianity,

he wanted it to be

a freestanding tomb

made entirely of the finest Carrara

marble he would choose himself.

Never since classical times

had a mausoleum like this

been built in the West

for one man alone.

Michelangelo planned to finish it

in under six years.

So why didn't he?'

This mausoleum

would've immortalised Pope Julius II

as this king-like pope,

who was this architect of Rome

who helped enable Rome to prosper

as one of the greatest cities

artistically in the world.

It was supposed to be

the Sistine Chapel in marble,

and instead we have Moses.

And don't get me wrong,

I love Moses. It's a masterpiece.

But he was supposed to have

serious company.

And instead, he's on his own.

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

(MAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

The tomb ultimately cost

a huge amount of money.

Maybe well into

the hundreds of thousands of dollars

in modern equivalency.

But here's where,

over the long, long history

of this tomb of 40 years,

there were contracts

and there was agreements

and there was funding,

and then there was promotion,

more money presented.

Michelangelo

didn't keep track of it!

And this is how he got into trouble.

He didn't keep track of the money,

he didn't- he couldn't legitimise,

or legitimate,

what he was spending his money on.

He was just a terrible,

terrible money manager.

(IN ITALIAN)

(CAMERAMAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

(IN ITALIAN)

Mmm.

(LAUGHTER)

MAN: Well...

(SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

(IN ITALIAN, CHUCKLING)

at the British Museum,

talking about Michelangelo

in these divine terms.

But I never really thought about him

as a man before.

And when I think

about the Tomb of Julius II,

I realised that I haven't

acknowledged that perhaps...

perhaps Michelangelo was flawed,

perhaps he made mistakes.

Why did this tomb take 40 years

to deliver?

Why was he hounded by the family

asking for the artwork

that he promised them?

Why did he take money and then

maybe not deliver on the sculptures?

And I think that, as art historians,

sometimes we're guilty

of just putting forward

the story of Michelangelo

and all of his accomplishments.

And we don't like to think about

all the messy, complicated stuff.

I want to really understand

this artist that I love so much.

You know, to be a true art historian

is to see an artist in the round.

And that's what I need to do.

(BIRDS TWEETING)

(GENTLE MUSIC)

'Michelangelo's born in 1475,

in a really tiny place,

Caprese, it's near Arezzo,

in the Tuscan countryside.

Michelangelo came from a family

which had very noble origins.

He was always very keen to stress

this, it was important to him.

But by no means was-

did he grew up in a family

which had a huge amount of wealth.'

And over 500 years later,

this is still one of the most

remote parts of Italy I've ever seen.

And it spectacular.

It's not about people.

It's not about buildings.

It's not about money.

It's not about status.

It's not about power.

This place just seems

to be about light and nature.

And actually, Michelangelo's making

more sense as an artist for me.

It's really important for me

to come back to this place

and trace his footsteps

and say, "He was born".

(CHUCKLING) He was-

He was flesh and blood, just like me.

And I think this art is

known the world over.

This, sort of, person who set

the benchmark for what art could be

was born right here.

(STIRRING MUSIC)

He doesn't grow up

with a lot of money.

There's no financial stability.

There's definitely always

a concern in Michelangelo...

Even when

he's in his much later years

and he shouldn't be worrying about

money, he does worry about money.

And you can see his letters

with his father.

His father's constantly

writing to him to say,

when he's a young man, "You should

be more financially secure,

but you mustn't live in poverty.

But at the same time,

you mustn't live extravagantly."

There's all these pressures on him

and that stays with him

throughout his entire life.

It's definitely a really

psychological trait in Michelangelo

to both uphold

the good name of the family,

but not be seen to be too luxurious.

And I think you see that

in the way that he handles money.

I mean, he's slightly negligent

when he handles money.

He's very concerned about money,

but he doesn't count every penny,

he's so busy with his work,

so he's a bit of a contradiction.

Well, Michelangelo was the person

in the family that made money.

And so, um, yes, his father

was constantly asking for money

from Michelangelo.

And so Michelangelo's

a little bit irritated

that other members of his family

weren't making as much money.

But Michelangelo

made a LOT of money in his life.

I mean, he- by the end of his life,

he was a multimillionaire,

but he didn't spend money

on himself.

He spent money on everything else,

his art and mostly on marble.

So, the...

money was always a tension,

as it probably is in many families.

(ANTONIO SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

Well, Michelangelo came

from an old, noble family...

uh, impoverished nobility.

And so, his father

would naturally expect Michelangelo

to become a member of the government

or a notary,

or something

that was not manual labour,

which is what art was considered,

a manual labour

and not very prestigious.

'When Michelangelo as a young man

says he wants to become an artist,

you can imagine his family

were really shocked

to the point of thinking

they might be disgraced

by him becoming an artist.

But he obviously just feels it

on a very instinctive level.'

But I think what becomes very clear

is that by the time

that Michelangelo is 13,

he's basically just drawing

at school.

(CHUCKLES)

He just wants to be an artist.

And his father and his uncle try

and convince him not to be an artist.

But eventually they submit,

and he goes to become an apprentice

at the workshop of Ghirlandaio, who's

a very respected Florentine artist.

'So, I've come to Florence

to retrace his footsteps

and think about him

in all of his complexity.

The Tomb of Julius II, it seems like

quite a contemporary problem.

You know, there's fake news.

There's people

trying to slander Michelangelo.

They're trying to cancel him,

they're trying to bring him down.

Was he a saint, or was he a sinner?

I don't know.

Could Michelangelo ever be

so innocent?

I've always thought him to be so.

But now thinking about it, I realise

it's a much more complex picture.

And I need to think carefully

and try and understand him

as flesh and blood.'

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(BIRDS TWEETING)

KATE: This is the cloister of the

Church of San Lorenzo in Florence,

and it's a site of huge significance

in Michelangelo's career.

It's the Medici family church.

It's a place

where he had a huge success

with the Medici Family Chapel.

WILLIAM: And so the Medici helped

pave the way

for a Michelangelo career.

And that career began, really,

not actually in the Medici garden,

but with the Ghirlandaio workshop,

where probably

because of the Medici connection,

Michelangelo was...

His way with smoothed into

the most impressive and important

workshop in all of Florence

A painter's workshop,

which is not how we think

of Michelangelo being trained.

Michelangelo is, however,

only there one year,

and that's unusual for an apprentice.

He gets summoned, he gets picked.

Lorenzo the Magnificent says,

"Send me two of your best

pupils to Ghirlandaio."

And Michelangelo's selected.

And then, this really just changes

the course of Michelangelo's life.

He's got this humanist education.

He's looking at ancient sculptures

in the gardens,

he's being tutored by great artists,

he's living a princely kind of life

with this very wealthy Medici family.

And what's critical

is that he would become very close,

almost like family,

with two future popes.

(WOMAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

(CURIOUS MUSIC)

Michelangelo really, as yet,

is not a sculptor when he's living

in the Medici household.

He's something like being trained

in something like a courtier,

sort of on the margins

of the court of the Medici.

But then, with the death

of Lorenzo de' Medici,

Michelangelo really needed a career,

he needed some kind of income.

And so he carved the Cupid

as a showpiece,

as a demonstration

that he could carve

as well as the antique sculptors

of the ancient world could carve.

And this Cupid was sent to Rome

as if it had been discovered

as an ancient work of art.

(ANTONIO SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

But his big break

came from Raffaele Riario,

who actually asked Michelangelo,

"What can you do?"

You know,

"OK, I've seen you carve the Cupid,

but what can you do new for me?"

And so, Michelangelo

actually then carved the Bacchus.

(CURIOUS MUSIC)

Then a French cardinal

noticed the Bacchus

and wanted a grave memorial

for himself,

which is what the Pieta was.

It was to mark the grave of this

very powerful French cardinal.

Michelangelo finally gets

what he's looking for,

a really serious commission by

a serious cardinal for the Vatican.

And he's gonna make a Pieta.

(STIRRING CLASSICAL MUSIC)

(IN ITALIAN)

(SOFT MUSIC)

So this really was

Michelangelo's coming out,

his debut sculpture that made him

famous immediately in the world.

And one way it's famous is not only

is it beautifully carved,

but it's a beautiful,

carved piece of marble.

It's just an absolute

miracle sculpture.

And I think he changes sculpture

in that moment.

People look at this work

and they're incredibly jealous

of this young artist

in his twenties in Rome.

They think,

"Who the hell does he think he is,

this young Michelangelo,

making a work like that?"

It surpasses everything

his contemporaries have achieved.

And it really just

speaks to the ancients.

So, it's such a critical

moment in Michelangelo's life.

And I think it's the moment where

he thinks he's suddenly made it.

He returns to Florence

and he really wants to make his name

in his homeland.

This is really important for him.

He gets a gift of a commission.

It's for the Duomo.

Unfortunately... (CHUCKLES)

It's a bit of a poisoned chalice

because they give Michelangelo

"the giant",

which is this

enormous block of marble

that three different artists

have had to go at.

It's absolutely enormous

and it's been quarried

40 years before,

which makes it even harder to carve.

And so actually,

it's a really difficult commission

to give this young artist.

But Michelangelo knows

this is his big moment.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

The David is Michelangelo,

world stage,

and fame with the David. Why?

(DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES)

Look at the scale of David.

Nobody in the Renaissance

had carved any sculpture

nearly of this scale,

and much less a nude figure

that was so impressively

naturalistic.

So, the David was actually

not even called "the David".

People just called it "Il Gigante".

(WOMAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

(IN ITALIAN)

So, Michelangelo was flourishing

as an artist in Florence.

Especially after the David, all

kinds of commissions came his way.

But suddenly,

he gets a call from Rome.

'Pope Julius II

would like him to come to Rome

to carve a mausoleum,

a monumental burial tomb

for the pope.'

So when he gets this papal summons

in 1505,

it changes the course of his

life because it means suddenly

he is right at the apotheosis

of the art world.

He has been summoned by a pope.

Not just any pope,

but a pope who wants to rebuild Rome.

(GENTLE MUSIC)

(BIRD CAWS)

(IN ITALIAN)

KATE: I think it's really difficult

to grasp quite what this means,

because the papacy

didn't just represent Christendom,

it represented power.

Pope Julius II was a warrior pope,

and he really wants to dominate

Italian politics.

So we've got money,

we've got power,

but also he's an extraordinary patron

of the arts.

So, I think if you put it

in today's terms, you could say,

"Oh, maybe it's like representing

your country at the Venice Biennale."

But it's bigger than that.

It's almost something that

we have to imagine for ourselves.

Like, imagine if the Princess

of Wales and the Prince of Wales

decided to build

a completely new palace in London

and have one artist

come and be their court artist.

Maybe that's what this is like.

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

(WOMAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

(CONTINUES IN ITALIAN)

But what I think is most important

about this whole project

is at the beginning of this project,

there was no contract,

there was no drawing.

It was a verbal agreement

between the Pope and the artist

to create

this eighth wonder of the world.

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

(IN ITALIAN)

(GENTLE MUSIC, BIRDS TWEETING)

KATY: 'Michelangelo's life

is intrinsically linked with marble.

It makes him and it also breaks him.

He becomes obsessed with it.'

'I've come to Florence,

to Casa Buonarroti,

a house he bought for his family,

to find out exactly how

he imagined this tomb to be...

..and to get an idea

of how much marble

he was going to need to make it.'

(CURIOUS MUSIC)

'This place holds one of the largest

Michelangelo archives.'

And in this archive

are actually letters,

correspondences between Michelangelo

and the heirs.

And my journey has brought me here

because in these letters,

I'll be able to shed more light

on what went on.

When we look at letters,

I think what we can do

is actually put ourselves in the

shoes of those who lived that time.

And to get that first

hand experience is extraordinary.

'I can see from this document most

of the measurements for the tomb,

and the number of statues

that Michelangelo wanted to create.

It was supposed to be 7 metres wide,

11 metres deep and 8 metres high.

It would have been adorned

by over 40 life-size statues

placed in St Peter's,

all in marble.

He puts an enormous emphasis

on the marble he wanted to use...

Not just any marble, it had to be

the world-famous Carrara marble.'

Michelangelo receives 1000 ducats

from Pope Julius II

to go off to the quarries

to get the marble for this.

Uh, again...

Once again, Michelangelo insisting

that he choose the best materials.

So, he started a lifelong love

for marble

and for the marble quarries,

a place where he probably

was the happiest of all.

(CURIOUS MUSIC)

'Michelangelo once wrote,

"The sculpture is already

complete within the marble block

before I start my work.

It is already there,

I just need to chisel away

the superfluous material."

I am visiting the same marble quarry

where Michelangelo

spent eight months

choosing the right slabs to use

to create the 40 statues

for the tomb of Pope Julius II.'

(CURIOUS MUSIC CONTINUES)

'Michelangelo described

this marble as being

"of compact grain,

h*m*, crystalline,

reminiscent of sugar."

I can see exactly what he meant.

Carrara is in the Apuan Mountains,

Italy's most marble-rich area.

Hundreds of quarries have

operated here since Roman times.'

(CURIOUS MUSIC BUILDS)

'I am meeting professor and sculptor

Luciano Massari

to find out more about

Michelangelo's obsession with marble

and these marble quarries.'

What is so special

about Carrara marble?

(IN ITALIAN)

(CURIOUS MUSIC)

So, after Michelangelo gets

the commission from Pope Julius II,

he comes to Carrara and it's here

where he has to extract

40 blocks of marble

to create these 40 sculptures.

What kind of feat was this

for him then?

And what does that translate to now?

(IN ITALIAN)

So, you as a professor,

but also as a sculptor...

When you're tackling Carrara marble,

what do you do with it?

And how would that be different

to how Michelangelo tackled it?

(IN ITALIAN)

(IN ITALIAN)

(CURIOUS MUSIC)

(CONTINUES IN ITALIAN)

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

(IN ITALIAN)

(LUCIANO SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

(WHISPERS) OK...

(CONTINUES IN ITALIAN)

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

KATY: 'Michelangelo arrived in Rome

after carefully

selecting his marble,

quarrying at Carrara

to great expense.

He then has to say goodbye to it,

as it makes its way on a boat

to Ripa Grande in Rome.

It's gonna arrive

in the port in Rome.

And what a sight it would've been

to see these enormous blocks

arriving in Rome, ready to fulfil

their artistic destiny.

It's poetic to me, but it must've

been terrifying to Michelangelo.'

(IN ITALIAN)

So, when Michelangelo comes back

to Rome with all of this marble

and he's ready to start creating

this greatest creation of all time,

then he's gonna, all of a sudden,

demand attention from the Pope

that the Pope doesn't have time for.

Time or money.

(IN ITALIAN)

(LAUGHS)

(CAMERAMAN SPEAKS ITALIAN)

(IN ITALIAN)

OK.

I think the rupture

between Michelangelo and Julius II

came mainly when Michelangelo

was unable to get an audience

with the Pope.

Uh, not only to get an audience,

but to get money to...

in order to continue this project.

And so Michelangelo left Rome

without the papal permission,

and this is the rupture.

You don't say no to a pope.

And you don't just leave his employ

without asking permission.

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

The groundwork for the rupture

was laid by Bramante,

who was probably the person

who convinced the Pope

that it's not a good idea

to build your own tomb monument

in your own lifetime,

this is unlucky.

Well, Bramante is quite a character.

He's the papal architect,

is someone that really unsettles

Michelangelo.

And throughout the course

of his life, Michelangelo complains

about Bramante's influence

on his own career.

Pope Julius II really relies

on Bramante.

He's not just building him a tomb

or painting him a picture,

he's rebuilding St Peter's.

And Bramante probably was helpful

in redirecting the Pope's attention

to the Sistine ceiling.

"Why don't we have Michelangelo

paint the Sistine ceiling instead?"

Bramante hears Michelangelo's gonna

build the tomb for Pope Julius II.

He knows

he is a supremely gifted sculptor.

And he's jealous,

and he says to Pope Julius II,

"You should get him to paint

the Sistine Chapel ceiling."

(CECILE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

Bramante thinks that Michelangelo's

totally gonna fail at the ceiling.

It's absolutely enormous.

And Bramante probably knows

that Michelangelo only had one year

with Ghirlandaio.

He was a young man, he didn't

have a long apprenticeship.

He wouldn't have worked

on any fresco cycles with him.

In fact, probably,

the day that Michelangelo turns up

to the Sistine Chapel in 1508,

thinking about making these frescoes

is the closest he's ever come

to making a fresco.

(IN ITALIAN)

WILLIAM: There's about eight months

there before he actually starts.

He's doing a lot of drawing.

He's making a lot of projects

and a lot of designs.

He's thinking about what's

appropriate for the ceiling.

He's consulting with the Pope

about what is wanted on the ceiling.

So, there's a long period there

before Michelangelo

actually starts to paint,

where he's sort of figuring out

that, "OK, I can do this."

And this is typical Michelangelo,

that he becomes a painter

when he needs to become a painter.

He became an architect

when he was needed as an architect.

He had never studied architecture

in his life.

He became a poet

when he wanted to write poetry.

So, he learned how to paint fresco

rather quickly.

Uh, it's a- it's a miracle.

It really is a miracle,

which is part

of the astonishment of the Sistine,

not just its scale and its grandeur,

but the fact that this person

who had never painted a fresco

in his life

painted the greatest fresco

of all time.

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

'In the middle of Rome,

just in a tiny area,

is a place that holds

some of the most extraordinary

masterpieces ever created.'

'It's the Vatican City.

And the jewel for me

there is the Sistine Chapel.

It's the ultimate work of art.

You can't believe that it was

designed and ex*cuted by one man.

The sheer invention of it,

the originality,

it changes art history forever.

But for me,

it changes history forever.

This is Michelangelo showing us

what humankind is capable of.

It works on an intimate level

with me,

but also works

on a universal level.

You don't need to know very much

to fall in love with that chapel.

I took my one-year-old daughter there

and a noisy, rambunctious toddler

suddenly just stood still.

And that's when I knew

that it was true, that it really...

It really touches people.'

(CURIOUS MUSIC)

'Even just standing

in the Sistine Chapel with you now,

my heart beats fast,

I have goose bumps.

It's hard to imagine that Bramante

thought that Michelangelo would fail

when he has achieved

such an extraordinary thing,

and I get to come in and enjoy it.'

(STIRRING MUSIC)

'For Michelangelo,

it must have been, at times, brutal.

I mean, this is a such

a physical undertaking, isn't it?'

(IN ITALIAN)

(KATE CHUCKLES)

(CONTINUES IN ITALIAN)

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(IN ITALIAN)

Michelangelo is extremely excited

about the tomb

commissioned for Pope Julius II.

We know that he begins work,

he's full of youthful bravado,

he wants to make something

extraordinary.

And yet, so quickly

after getting the tomb commission,

his attentions are diverted.

I mean, he has no choice, does he?

He has to follow

what the pope wants him to do?

(IN ITALIAN)

It's almost as if sometimes it's not

just the achievement of Michelangelo.

Sometimes it feels like

it's the achievement of humankind.

If this is what

stands for our culture,

then it's an extraordinary thing

that humankind can achieve this.

(IN ITALIAN)

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

The tomb of Pope Julius II is the

most long, drawn out, protracted,

ultimately disappointing part of

Michelangelo's career, if you ask me.

He gets the commission in 1505.

He stops work in 1508,

paints the Sistine Chapel, no less.

1512, finishes the Sistine Chapel.

But then in 1513, just a few months

after the Sistine Chapel is unveiled,

Pope Julius II dies.

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(BELL TOLLS)

KATY: 'Pope Julius II dies

without seeing the tomb

he had commissioned

from Michelangelo...

A tomb

that was going to be so grandiose,

it would've overshadowed

any other mausoleum

in the Western world.'

'Although we don't have drawings,

Michelangelo writes about his vision

for this masterpiece.

So, we know that it was meant

to have two or three floors.

It was meant to be adorned

by no less than 40 statues

as big and as perfect as the Moses.

And it was meant to represent

the Christian world.'

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

'This tomb would've been

so ground-breaking

that experts have been trying

to bring it back to life

for decades.

But only now does the right

technology exist to do that.'

So, Mitchell, tell us about

what we're looking at here.

We are using

actual historical documents

to create the volumes

and the designs.

We are using open source software

to create the model

right from scratch.

Then we are going to apply materials

in order to make it beautiful.

And the process

is part a technical effort

and part an artistic effort

because, of course,

there is no real object

to reconstruct.

So we need to start from what

we have and imagine what we don't.

We are trying to remain as faithful

as we can to the source material.

But, of course, what we don't have,

we need to fill in the blanks.

We are here in the very beautiful

setting of San Pietro in Vincoli

as we are now wrapping up

the digital reconstruction

of the mausoleum by Michelangelo.

And in this context,

we are creating a 3D scan

of the Moses statue,

again by Michelangelo,

which will be then placed within the

3D reconstruction of the mausoleum.

It's a very important

technical challenge for us.

We are using

one of the most advanced techniques.

We're using

a structured light scanner

which uses high-energy

pulsating light beams

to recreate both the volumes

and the surface of the statue.

This 3D model will then be placed

within our digital twin

of the mausoleum

to make it as real-life as possible.

But with the flexibility

and the capabilities

of the 3D world, of course.

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

'And the Moses stands there,

still as always,

in its timeless beauty with his

ferocious gaze as it gets scanned

and it awaits to be put

where he should've been all along,

on the mausoleum that Michelangelo

wanted to carve all those years ago.

But he never did.

And the curse of the papal tomb

continued.'

(CURIOUS MUSIC)

'To think that this tomb

became so intrinsically linked

with his own life, reputation

and success is astounding.

As a deeply religious man,

he wanted to deliver the world

not just a tomb, but a symbol

that celebrated Christianity

in all its glory.

But he failed.

And this failure tormented him

for the rest of his days.

When the pope died in 1513,

the pope's heirs,

the Della Rovere family,

were very keen on having

the pope's tomb now completed.

And, of course, they felt

that they had already invested

a huge amount of money,

which they had.

The family had already invested a

huge amount of money in the project.

So, this is the beginning

of the difficulties of the tomb.

(IN ITALIAN)

(IN ITALIAN)

The thing is, there's a new pope.

It's Pope Leo X, which is one

of Michelangelo's childhood friends.

He's hanging around in the court

of the Medici at the same time.

He's Lorenzo the Magnificent's heir.

He also wants to give Michelangelo

his own commissions,

his own projects,

and he gives Michelangelo one

of the most tantalising commissions

he could possibly have asked for...

to create the facade of San Lorenzo.

And he wants a Medici tomb,

so Michelangelo's busy trying

to fulfil the wishes of a new pope.

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

(CRISTINA SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

(IN ITALIAN)

Now, what happens is they need

to put a new contract in place.

So, the heirs of Pope Julius II

want to make sure

that there's a really sort of clear

arrangement with Michelangelo,

because actually everything

with the pope

had been done more

in a gentlemen's agreement.

There was, sort of, no money set.

It was like,

"Have all the money in the world,

make me the greatest tomb on earth."

And it was all,

kind of, relatively hyperbolic,

whereas the heirs want

to put a contract in place.

(IN ITALIAN)

I mean,

he's awarded a huge amount of money.

An equivalent of, say,

a villa and a Ferrari, or something.

It's not money for life, but it is

an extraordinary amount of money.

(IN ITALIAN)

He spent lots of money.

He spent lots of money,

but he never spent money on himself.

He actually lived rather simply,

poorly.

He spent money on marble.

(IN ITALIAN)

The heirs, on their perspective,

when we put ourselves

in the shoes of the heirs,

they've paid Michelangelo

a lot of money already to do this,

yet they don't have

the financial ability

to go through

with the original plans,

so they have to downsize it.

KATE: 'In 1516,

the heirs give him another contract

because they're really

trying to keep him in line.

They reduce significantly

what the tomb should be.

So, instead of being this amazing

freestanding monument,

it becomes a wall tomb.

Far less exciting for Michelangelo,

probably,

even though it's still designed

to be quite large.'

(DANIELE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

And then in 1523, there's yet

another new pope,

Pope Clement VII.

Now, Clement VII is another

childhood friend of Michelangelo,

another Medici pope,

who also wants Michelangelo

to fulfil loads of extraordinary

obligations for him too,

including finishing the Medici tomb,

and The Last Judgement.

Michelangelo's now in a situation

where there are so many

competing demands for his time.

He can't turn down the Pope

for the heirs of Pope Julius II

but he's also terrified of them.

Michelangelo felt like

he was a victim of this story,

and Francesco Maria Della Rovere

was certainly the, um, villain.

(ALINA SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

Francesco Maria Della Rovere

took over.

And here was a man who's, sort of,

a vicious soldier,

and not very sensitive to the arts,

and not very-

not at all sensitive

to Michelangelo,

who felt like the family had spent

far too much money already

and Michelangelo was not producing

anything or finishing this project.

In fact, Michelangelo was actually

accused of embezzling funds

and misusing the funds,

which he probably did.

And so-

But Francesco de Maria Della Rovere

never was a friend of Michelangelo,

and vice versa.

They really didn't get along.

And in which case,

nothing was happening on the tomb.

Michelangelo didn't-

He always had an excuse

about why he couldn't produce

what Francesco Maria expected.

So,

it's a bit like you take a house...

You wanna redo the kitchen,

so you pay someone a lot of money

because you want

to get a new kitchen.

Perhaps you want

some Carrara marble fitted...

And the builders are coming,

but they're not really showing up,

and at the end result,

you haven't got anything better

than you even begun with.

And if you're

the owner of the house,

you're not gonna be too pleased

about this.

And in a way,

this is almost parallel

to what the heirs

were experiencing with Michelangelo.

They'd paid him a lot of money,

yet he wasn't delivering.

(ANTONIO SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

Michelangelo promises this,

or promises that,

and he'll do it in a certain amount

of time with this amount of money.

But this is yet

the third or fourth time

that Michelangelo

has gone through this, you know,

project in a different way

with a different person.

And the result of this, you know,

imbroglio between him

and Francesco Maria Della Rovere

is that nothing was done.

(IN ITALIAN)

I mean, they are really on his case.

He says, you know,

"I'm losing weight, I'm losing sleep.

They won't get off my back."

So, actually,

he kind of asks Pope Clement VII

to sort of step in

and protect him from the heirs.

He's really worried about them,

particularly

Francesco Maria Della Rovere,

who's actually

a not particularly nice character

and totally unsympathetic

to Michelangelo.

(IN ITALIAN)

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(IN ITALIAN)

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

(CONTINUES IN ITALIAN)

(PENSIVE MUSIC CONTINUES)

(CONTINUES IN ITALIAN)

(PENSIVE MUSIC CONTINUES)

(IN ITALIAN)

He was, in a sense,

flattering Michelangelo, by saying,

"You've already created

the greatest fresco of all time

in painting the ceiling.

Could you finish the chapel,

the great chapel of the Sistine,

by painting The Last Judgement?"

And here again, Michelangelo

cannot say no to a pope.

(IN ITALIAN)

(SMOOTH MUSIC)

KATE: So the first big commission

that takes Michelangelo away

from Julius II's tomb

is the ceiling.

He completes the ceiling, he goes

straight back to work on the tomb.

And then, of course, the Della Rovere

heirs are asking for a new contract.

They want

to get the work going again.

And there are a succession

of reasons why Michelangelo

is delayed on the tomb.

It becomes quite protracted.

And then I turn and face

this way and say,

"Well, this is a whole other reason

why the tomb is further delayed

because he's working for other popes,

for their plans

and for their grand ambitions.

And it's such an extraordinary thing,

I'm so pleased it exists.(CHUCKLES)

But I'm sure the Della Rovere heirs

were frustrated by this, perhaps,

because they thought this is another

reason why the tomb is not ready.

(IN ITALIAN)

Mmm.

Mmm.

(GRAND MUSIC)

(MUSIC SOFTENS)

KATE:

'As he painted The Last Judgement,

Michelangelo himself

was being judged

for taking the Della Rovere money

and not working on the tomb.

His reputation as a godlike genius

was being stained.

I want to understand

how this situation

was perceived during his lifetime.

Maybe he was right to set aside

the much diminished tomb

of Pope Julius II

and focus

on more ambitious projects.

Maybe he had no choice.

Nestled in the Tuscan hills,

surrounded by nothing much but

forest, is Castello Malaspina.

This is where Michelangelo stayed

during his many trips to Carrara,

and where it's likely

that he received

a very scathing letter

from Pietro Aretino

Pietro Aretino was a powerful man

who wielded an enormous influence

on Renaissance art and politics.

His opinions mattered a great deal.

He could make or break reputations.

In the letter he wrote

to Michelangelo

in 1545 about The Last Judgement,

although full of innuendos,

it's pretty clear

that he was trying

to raise suspicions

about Michelangelo's

moral standing.'

He writes,

"Your art would be at home

in some voluptuous Roman bathhouse,

certainly not

in the highest chapel in the world.

Less criminal were it

if you were an infidel,

than being a believer,

thus to sap the faith of others.

Up to the present time,

the splendour

of such audacious marvels

hath not gone unpunished."

"Well, if the treasure bequeathed

to you by Pope Julius,

in order that you might deposit his

ashes in an urn of your own carving,

was not enough to make you keep

your plighted word,

what can I expect from you?"

And in the first part

of the letter,

he's criticising

Michelangelo's Last Judgement.

But as we read on,

we actually also see him

looking at Pope Julius II's tomb.

And by how it's phrased,

it gives insight

into how some of the public

perceived Michelangelo

and actually how, perhaps,

he didn't handle well

the relationship

between the Della Rovere family

and the Pope Julius II tomb.

"God wills that Julius should live

renowned forever in a simple tomb,

inurned in his own merits,

and not in some proud monument

dependent on your genius.

Meantime, your failure

to discharge your obligation

is reckoned to you

as an act of thieving."

Well, I mean,

it's pretty harsh in a way.

But, you know, I mean,

it's interesting to see

the public perceptions

of Michelangelo

and to see how people viewed him.

(GENTLE MUSIC)

In Michelangelo's time,

art was the news.

Art was the thing

that people paid most attention to,

other than maybe religion.

So really,

the art of the Renaissance

was the news of the Renaissance,

was the news

of the time and the people.

(GENTLE MUSIC)

One of the most astonishing things

about Michelangelo

is that he was so famous

in his lifetime

that actually two biographies

were written while he was still

alive.

He's probably the first artist ever

to read his own biography

and decide

to edit it in some ways.

And so, the first biography

that was written of him

was by Giorgio Vasari.

KATE: Vasari would like to think

that I would sit here

and call him a great painter

from the Italian Renaissance.

But actually I sit here

and call him a great writer.

He almost founded

the tradition of art history.

He wrote a series of biographies

of all of the great Italian artists.

So, he gives us, like, a firsthand

account of the Italian Renaissance.

(IN ITALIAN)

And while Michelangelo

was certainly flattered by the fact

that Vasari was writing

a biography of this artist,

he was reminded constantly

of his many unfinished works.

So,

he wanted to sort of tell the story

or control the media,

control the message.

And that's when he had

Ascanio Condivi, a friend of his,

really write

an alternative biography

that Michelangelo felt

was closer to the truth.

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

The thing is, is that Michelangelo

wasn't particularly happy

with how Vasari had framed him,

essentially.

(ANTONIO SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

So Michelangelo's very distressed

at the prospect

that people misunderstand.

So,

he commissions his own autobiography.

(IN ITALIAN)

So, we start to get the sense

that Michelangelo

almost wants to have his own

press agent, you know?

In today's terms, he wants to go out

there and set the record straight.

And he wants Condivi

to write this authorised account

of what happened with the tomb.

And he calls it

the great "tragedy" of the tomb.

(IN ITALIAN)

It's almost like Michelangelo's

desperately trying

to reposition himself

and secure his legacy.

And I think,

you know, in today's parlance

we would say that it was

cancel culture coming to get him.

He was a subject of gossip, subject

of rumours, and he hated that.

He thought he was a man

of noble standings.

He's not someone whose name

should be smeared in the tabloids,

as it probably felt to him,

as we see it now.

And today, we see it the whole time

with members in the public eye,

for example,

certain members of the royal family.

They might not be so clear on paper.

Yet, what they want to do

is have authorised biographies,

so people in 10, 50, 100 years' time

will remember them the way

that they want to be remembered.

Well, I think it's a contemporary

story, in the sense that...

it's sort of tale as old as time,

in terms of what we should believe

and what we should not believe.

Gossip has been swarming our world

for millennia.

And actually, if anything,

it gives a more human aspect

to Michelangelo,

because at the end of the day,

yes, he created

these divine like figures,

but he was also just a human...

A human

who wanted to secure his legacy

and authorise how the public would

perceive him in centuries to come.

Toward the end of his life,

Michelangelo shows a more cordial

relationship with Vasari.

He answers more of his letters,

and you get the sense that

Michelangelo's thinking about Vasari

as the great biographer,

and Vasari as, maybe, holding the key

to part of Michelangelo's legacy.

And after Michelangelo dies,

Vasari,

in the second edition of The Lives,

the great biographies,

entirely reworks

the Michelangelo chapter.

It's much longer,

he incorporates huge swathes

that were written

in Condivi's authorised biography,

although he doesn't actually

mention Condivi.

But what's fundamental is that

Vasari is part of the campaign

to set the record straight

about Michelangelo's life.

And so...

the information about his ancestors,

the information about the tomb,

are changed. They're modified.

And what we learn is that, you know,

Michelangelo is the great man.

And actually, to this day,

art historians are still quite keen

to talk about Michelangelo,

the great man.

There is no doubt whatsoever

that Michelangelo

wanted to tell the story his way,

and to save, in a sense,

some things of his legacy,

especially to counter

the accusations

of money embezzlement,

this sort of thing.

Michelangelo

had his own explanation,

which Visari very much developed

in his biography for Michelangelo

after they got to know each other

and after Michelangelo told Visari

what was really

the important parts of his story.

And Visari then republishes

his Lives of the Artist

in a much expanded edition.

I think the thing

that's important to remember,

as big a fan of Michelangelo as I am,

is that he did keep the money.

He continually agreed to deadlines

that he couldn't meet.

He kept the money. He claimed

that ended up out of pocket,

which is a bit duplicitous

because it's not really true.

We can see that from the records.

So he's, by no stretch

of the imagination, innocent here.

Michelangelo misused the funds

that the Della Rovere...

excessive amounts of funds

for the tomb.

"We've spent a huge amount of money,

40 years have gone by,

and we still don't have a tomb."

(IN ITALIAN)

It's the fourth project when

Guidobaldo Della Rovere takes over,

who not only

knows Michelangelo very well,

but understands him

and highly respects him,

and mostly allows Michelangelo

to work

at his own pace and in his own time.

That's the kind of patron that

Michelangelo always worked best for.

And it's not a surprise

that it's under Guidobaldo

that the tomb is finally finished.

The new heir, Guidobaldo,

is much more sympathetic,

and at this point,

it's been over 30 years

since Pope Julius the second died.

I mean, it's getting ridiculous.

So he just says, when you've finished

working for Pope Paul III,

then you'll make it for me, right?

And Michelangelo says yes.

He's got someone finally

who's sympathetic,

who writes courteous letters,

who treats him with the respect

that he demands.

So actually, it's quite amazing.

Once that contract's in place

and Pope Paul III's

given him his protection.

Michelangelo finishes it

in two years.

It took 40 years

to nail down this commission.

And ultimately, Pope Julius II's tomb

is not something

that we all talk about.

We talk about Moses, we talk

about one sculpture in this tomb.

It's not even in the Vatican

where it was supposed to be.

And actually, I barely even notice

the lying figure of Pope Julius II on

the tomb, I just look at the Moses.

So, it's not even

what it's supposed to be.

It's become something

completely different.

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

'This is such a long

and protracted story.

40 years, several redesigns...

Several stories, 40 figures, bronzes

Absolutely extraordinary,

there's nothing like it.

It remains a huge unfulfilled

part of art history.

And then slowly see it

begin to diminish.

Instead of becoming freestanding,

that you would be able

to walk around,

it becomes wall-based.

And then the number of

figures gets reduced dramatically.

We start losing things. We lose

the niches, we lose the bronzes.

So, a lot of the complexity

and the thing that would've given

the tomb this great advantage

of having been so epic,

that starts to fade away.

And actually, when I think about

Julius II's tomb now,

I think about it

as an unfulfilled promise

that left me Moses.'

(MUSIC BUILDS)

'When I'm standing here,

the redesigns, the contracts,

it all fades to black.

And what remains is a masterpiece.

Michelangelo has made flesh

and blood out of marble.

He's made Moses a man,

and he's a furious man.

And I'm frozen to the spot

looking at him.

And there's this deep connection,

and I feel the suspense in the air.

And there's a question

that I need answered.

And like Michelangelo once said,

"Why don't you talk, Moses?

You've been witness to so much."'

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

(MUSIC FADES)

(GENTLE MUSIC)